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for his family to remain in the truck as he stepped out and
approached the bank where he asked the four brothers, who were
still standing in the middle of the river, whether he could
oblige them in any way, like by telephoning the local sheriff's
office or a garage or something.

There was a pleasant smile on the farmer's face which couldn't
help show how amusing the outrageous spectacle seemed to him.
Tumble asked the farmer to please use his phone in both the ways
he mentioned and told him they would all wait for the police and
garageman to show. Tumble closed with a sincere "Thank
you," and the farmer headed back toward the cab of his
truck, but he didn't climb into it. Instead, he leaned inside for
a second and turned back around with what looked like a Brownie
Hawkeye camera, complete with flash attachment, in his worn, hard
hands.

He returned to the edge of the bank, holding the camera and
shyly asked, "'Scuse me, fellas. I know it might seem
downright impolite, but I jus' hadda ask you or I'd be kickin'
myself for weeks if I didn't. You see, ain't nobody gonna believe
it when I tell 'em 'bout you 'n the river 'n the car 'n all, 'n I
would be much obliged if you let me take a snapshot of you 'n
everything before I git on back to my house 'n make those phone
calls you asked me to."

Tumble and the Hun whispered something like "Nothing
doing!" to themselves under their breath with the latter
going on to the others about how the photo could be used later to
identify all of them, if anything happened at the conference or
someplace else nearby. Emmett stopped him before he got himself
and the others caught up in paranoia, cutting him off with logic.
If the four of them didn't oblige the farmer with a snapshot that
each of them could simultaneously blur with a bit of slight
movement and closed eyes, the guy might become insulted enough
not to oblige them with the necessary phone calls, and they'd be
spending the whole goddamn night wet and cold.

All this discussion was done in quick whispers while paying
unflinching attention to the farmer who was standing above them
and returning their shit-eating-grins with an enthusiastic,
hopeful smile. Billy Landout delighted the guy by yelling up to
him, "Sure, it's all right for you to take a picture. But
just make it no more than two, okay? 'Cause we're gettin' kinda
cold here in this river, 'n we'd like to get on out and into some
warm clothes. Just tell us when you're ready, so we can pose real
nice for you, okay?"

The farmer got real happy very fast and clicked off the two
photos [end page 391]